A Jurassic dinosaur fossil that was first spotted more than 50 years ago has been extracted from the base of a cliff on Skye and formally identified.
The fossil was discovered near to Elgol in 1973 and is Scotland’s earliest recorded dinosaur find.
National Museums Scotland (NMS) said it remained uncollected until a team led by Dr Elsa Panciroli returned in 2018.
Known as the Elgol dinosaur, the fossil is preserved in fragments, but experts have identified part of the spine, ribs and hipbones – making it the most complete dinosaur skeleton found to date in Scotland.
Bone analysis has led researchers to believe it is an ornithopod dinosaur, a group which includes notable later dinosaurs such as Iguanodon, Parasaurolophus and Edmontosaurus.
It is believed to date from around 166 million years ago, in the Middle Jurassic, making it one of the oldest known ornithopod body fossils, from a group of dinosaurs that became far more prominent in the later Cretaceous period.
An artist’s impression of the Elgol dinosaur. Pic: NMS/Maija Karala
Dr Elsa Panciroli with the Elgol dinosaur fossil. Pic: NMS/Neil Hanna
Dinosaur finds are rare in Scotland and much of the rock that is exposed at the surface across the country is not from the period when the animals ruled the earth – the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, jointly known as the Mesozoic era. Dinosaur finds are more common in southern England where more of the exposed rock is geologically newer.
Analysis of the bone structure indicates the Elgol dinosaur, which would have been roughly the size of a pony, was at least eight years old.
The new description of the dinosaur is published in the Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Lead author Dr Panciroli, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) independent research fellow at NMS, said: “This was a really challenging extraction.
Pic: NMS/Neil Hanna
“In fact, we’d previously felt it was too difficult to collect the fossil, but I thought it was really important to study it.
“I was able to persuade the team to give it a try. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people, but we did it: finally we can confirm and publish Scotland’s first recorded and most complete dinosaur, and that makes it all worthwhile.”
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The excavation was made possible with the support of a specialist team from Research Casting International, based in Canada, while a crew from Elgol’s Bella Jane Boat Trips piloted the rigid inflatable boat and dinghy to the shore at the foot of the cliff, where the specimen was loaded and taken back to port.
Other Jurassic discoveries from Skye include descriptions of adult and juvenile mammals of the same species, Krusatodon, which revealed the animals grew more slowly than the mammals of today, and the world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur (flying reptile) fossil, Dearc sgiathanach.
Hundreds of dinosaur tracks have also been discovered across Skye in recent years.
A sedimentary rock cliff face at Elgol on the Isle of Skye. Pic: iStock
Dr Stig Walsh, from NMS, said: “This is a wonderful addition to the rapidly growing set of Jurassic finds from the Isle of Skye which are enabling us to learn more and more about the rich ecosystem of the time.
“We’ve known there were dinosaurs there for a while, most obviously from the famous footprints at An Corran, Brother’s Point and Duntulm and from individual bones, but it’s exciting to see a more complete, if still partial, skeleton.
“We’re delighted to add it to the other amazing finds now in the national collection.”
The earliest scientifically described dinosaur find in the UK was in Oxfordshire in the mid to late 17th century – a now-lost piece of bone from the Megalosaurus. But it wasn’t until the early 19th century that after another find from the same animal in the same area, the Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be named, according to the Oxford Museum of Natural History.
